Inventory

What's Included in the Kit#

note

While the values of the components and the layout of the PCB won't change, they may vary in appearance (ie, changing the brand of caps, different color/silkscreen PCB, wire colors, etc), so your kit's parts may look slightly different than what's pictured throughout the guide. That's just fine! Everything will work the same.

The POLY555 DIY Kit

  • Printed circuit board (PCB): 1
  • Plexiglass window pane: 1
  • Electronics components: 255 pieces total!
    • 9v snap, chips, switch: 24
    • Capacitors: 64
    • IC chip sockets: 21
    • LEDs: 3 colors, 21 total
    • Resistors: 83
    • Speaker: 1
    • Tactile switches: 20
    • Trim potentiometers: 21
  • Nuts and bolts: 12

Not Using the Kit?#

If you're going the full open-source route and gathering all the parts by yourself, head over to the POLY555 from Scratch appendix, then come back here when you're done.

What You'll Need#

You'll need the following tools to assemble your POLY555:

Required#

  • Soldering iron and solder for electronics
  • Wire stripper or cutters
  • Philips and flathead screwdrivers
  • Chromatic instrument tuner, phone app, or an online tuner
  • Utility knife
  • School glue
  • 9v battery

Recommended#

  • Multimeter for debugging
  • PCB vice or “helping hands” holder
  • “Solder sucker” or desoldering braid
  • Tweezers or “dentist’s tools” for working with small components
  • Windex
  • Patience, patience, patience
tip

Give yourself plenty of time to put this together, at least 5 hours. There are a lot of components and things to solder!

I like to spread it out throughout the day and take lots of breaks!